Crawford avalanche., 1887-06-16
WASHINGTON LETTER
WAsHrNaToN. juno

LiCoiAch' Ahnooius ohu Wuc oitcA "aiuc
an assistant secretary Of the Treasury.
so that when he assumed the portable,
in 1882. of Secretary Of the Navy, he
was cognizant of certain abuses that
existed in the Department. and
came into Office with the avowed pur-
pose of the correction of the same.
But lie had miscalculated the degree
of opposition which radical measures
Of any sort were accustomed to bs met
with in that branch of the government,
and when the Jolly old tars at the
heads of the several bureaus formed a
combine and resented with steady
determination and increasing obstacles
at every move, the attempts at inter
ference with their longtime establish
ed prerogatives. the Hon. Secretary
was at last forced to surrender, and
submitted with as good grace as was
possible, to the fate of more than one
of his predecessors, who had essayed
the role of reformer. He, however.
contented himself, towards the close
of Ills incumbency, with the ferretiDg
out of certain frauds in one of the
Bureaus. by which it's chief clerk, with
the connivance of the finance clerk,
had, by means of collusion with Ger
tain dealers and contractors. for a
long time been defrauding the govern
ment. This investigation begun, was
promptly and vigorously prosecuted by
his successor, the present Secretary of
the Navy, to the conviction and SEN
tence of the guilty parties, to six years
imprisonment each.
Secretary Whitney, on the other
hand, came from fresh contact with
business methods In the busy metrop-
oils; and with his training received in
the District Attorneys Office of New
York City, together with the prestige
which allegiance to party which had
not held the reins of government for
twenty-five years, gave him he knew
not what opposition meant, and direct
ly assailed the citadel of Bureaucra-
cy.
In his application of business prin-
ciples to the transaction Of public af-
fairs, he brought a. corps of New
York's most expert accountants, who,
while they did not find any actual
wrong in the departments accounts,
still enough was apparent to show that
the methods pursued were faulty in
the extreme, from the fact that oppor-
tunities were easy for extravagant and
unauthorizde outlays of public money.
The greatest oil the abuses to which
l have referred, was the jealous de-
fence of their prarogatives, by the
Bureaus, aided by the punctilious
courtesy which the chief of one OBJ
served in his intercourse with the chief
of another Bureau, to the manifest de-
triment of the good of the service.
To illustrate: Each Bureau in the mat
ter of purchases being practically in
dependent, one would be found buying
in an outside market at high figure
perhaps, material which was stored in
large quantities in the store houses of
another naval Bureau, the stores, too,
rotting in this one, because of long
storage.
During the same year, coal has been
purchased by different paymasters
from the same person on or about the
same days, deliverable at the very
same place. of like quality and charac-
ter, but at prices differing from so to
65 cents ton.
Although the Secretary met with no
direct opposition in his efforts to con-
solidate the Bureaus, and apply the
natural disvision of the work of the
Department into three branches, viz
'The personnel and the feet;" INA
terial and construction" and finance
and accounts" yet the opposing in
fiuences were none the less felt in the
want of cooperation in a direction
from which he had q right to expect 1t. |
When the chairman of the Naval Com
mittee, in Committee of the Whole,
attempted to bring up the bill for re.
organization Of the Navy Department,
he was irrevocably extinguished.
In his discretion, the present secre-
tary has made some improvements in
the organization of The department,
and in the distribution of its work,
without additional legislation; the
most Important of which is the plac-
ing of the purchasing and accounting
functions in one division which also |
has the care and issue of stores of
every description used IN the Navy.
An ordinary man of business would
scarcely credit the statement that vast
amounts of valuable stores have ac-
cumulated from time to time, I'm the
Naval storehouses. which have not
been properly inventoried and thus not
exactly accounted for on the books,
thus offering the greatest facility for
collusioD between clerk, custodian and
dealer.
Astonishing Success.
IL Is the duty of every person who